DEPARTMENT’S BAN DEFIED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 53, 26 November 1928, Page 9

DEPARTMENT’S BAN DEFIED

ACTION BY SCHOOL COMMITTEE EDUCATION BOARD’S DISAPPROVAL Dominion Special Service. Christchurch, November 23. Strong disapproval and criticism of the action of the Linwood Avenue School. Committee in keeping the whole school open contrary to the instructions of the Health Department that it should close the lower classes, because of the prevalence of scarlet fever, was expressed at to-day’s meeting of the Canterbury Education Board. It was stated by one member that by keeping the school open, the. committee laid themselves open to the possibility of being charged with manslaughter, if any of the children bad died of scarlet fever. The appointments committee made a very brief report to the board on the, position. It merely stated that: “A report was received regarding the action taken in connection with the expulsion of certain pupils from schools in the Christchurch Metropolitan- area.” . Mr. C. S. Thompson said that the position was more important than the committee led the board to suppose. Was the board satisfied with the position? Definite instructions had been disobeyed. A door, was being opened for, a recurrence of the incident. The chairman (Mr. W. H. Winsor) : You are referring to the Linwood Avenue School? Mr. Thompson: Yes. Mr. C. Kirk, secretary, said that the question had been dealt with fully in the newspapers, and. a. verbal report was made to the committee; The chairman said Hie position was; that ab.out a fortnight’ago, Dr.--Telford rang him up, and asked Mr. Kirk and him to call and meet Dr. Valentine. He had gone with Mr. Kirk, and they had been shown a certain amount of figures dealing with scarlet fever. Both the doctors were apparently concerned over the position, and had asked them to close the schools. They told the doctors that it would be a.very unfortunate time to close . the schools then, because of the proximity of the examinations, but they reluctantly agreed-, to close the lower classes. He was not aware at that time that there were so many children of ten years of age ip the upper classes. The chairman went on to say that he was rung up by many chairmen of school committees about the board’s action, aud he was told that in half a dozen schools there was no sickness at all, but, as the chairman of the Education Board, he would not say whether the decision was right or wrong. The committees had had an order to close. If they chose to break that order, it was their own affair. Continuing, the chairman said that so far as the Linwood Avenue School was concerned, the members of the committee had taken the responsibility of keeping the school Open upon themselves. He had told them that their duty was to go ahead, and do as the Department had instructed them. “When the Linwood Avenue school committee kept the school open, and forced the children to go back to the school against the order of the Health Department, it took a very serious action,” said Mr. W. A. Banks. “If a child had died of scarlet fever when it went back to school, the committee would have been held responsible for that child’s death. There is little doubt about that.”

The chairman: Yes. They were very foolish; I told them the same thing.’ “If there is a definite ruling from the Health Department, it should be followed,” said Mr. C. S. Thompson. “I am chairman of a school committee, but I would never take on my shoulders the responsibility for the life of a child, which is such a valuable thing compared with a few weeks of lost schooling. The question is what are we going to do about it?” , ~ , j The chairman : I don’t think we can <lo much. We might reprimand the committCTlie following motion, moved by Mr. R. Wild, was carried unanimously: “That in all cases affecting the health of the community, when definite instructions from the Health Department are issued through the controlling . authorities for education, in any district, it is the duty of school committees to obey such instructions, seeing that noncompliance therewith may place a very heavy responsibility upon those concerned.” •